The modern age is the age of the specialists. Life has become more complex and complicated. WE now live in giant mega cities; our needs have to be served by huge farms and factories. In Innumerable, problems have to be solved; obstacles have to be overcome. This requires specialised training by expert trainers.
There are specialists in every department of life to meet and satisfy these. Today the general physician needs the help of specialists for studying each part of the human body — the radiologist, the cardiologist, the pathologist, the surgeon and so on. An engineer in the past was competent to build a house, or lay a road, or constructed a bridge.
Today we have the structural engineer, the electrical engineer, the wireless, the mechanical, the pharmaceutical engineer, the computerized sections and others. In the field of economics, there are specialised men to deal with banking or currency, or foreign exchanges, the statisticians, the micro and macroeconomics. If a school is started, it needs specially trained teachers for each subject that is taught.
Hence, the need has risen for specialization in education. On the completion of each stage of education, students must pass on to more and more specialized lines of learning. For this reason, modern educational institutions must be equipped for specialized courses. There must be institutions to impart special instruction and training. Today no man can boast of encyclopedic learning, however vast may be his scholarship and education. Each department of life must have its own-trained specialists.
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On course, specialization must begin after a course of general education has been satisfactorily completed. The stage at which specialization should begin requires careful planning.
Hence, the school should properly train teachers who are able to assess the merits and aptitudes of each student and plan out his further course of study. Specialization concerns itself with equipping a student with a skill or efficiency, whereas ‘general education’ aims at training of the powers of the mind for understanding men and things. India is today planning for the specialists. She has set up special institutes for turning out trained personnel.